Kim Jung Eun was so good at laying out the broken pieces of this housewife in Oohlala Spouses but let’s keep her away from playing guy characters in the future, okay? Ha Ji Won is her usual athletic self in The King 2 Hearts but she is so good at playing up Hang Ah’s girly dreams at the same time as her military roots. Jung Ryeo Won is funny and just great as a naïve screenwriter in The King of Dramas. Kim Hee Sun keeps the romance alive while Lee Min Ho stands there looking pretty in Faith.

Han Chae Ah is quite stunning as a foil then an unexpected troubled admirer of the hero in Gaksital.Lee Yoon Ji was remarkably wonderful playing up the troubled psyche of her character’s misfortunes in King 2 Hearts. Hong Soo Hyun was sexy, funny, and smart in History of the Salaryman. Shin So Yool embodied what it means to be a teenager going through the troughs of life in Answer Me 1997.

Starting off the day with my list of favorite supporting performances from Korean drama this year:

Finalists:

Yoon Woo Jin played his troubled character with such aching vulnerability and tragedy all the way to the end of Arang and the Magistrate. Sung Dong Il was the best dad on any Korean drama this year with this funny and moving take in Answer Me 1997. Kim Bum can do no wrong in my book and he does his perfectly angelic child-like thing in Padam Padam. Hoya is restrained and subtle with a secret in Answer Me 1997.

With the Olympics ending this weekend (OH THANK GOD, I THOUGHT I’D DIE FROM LACK OF NEW DRAMA EPISODES) and one of the more exciting premiere weeks this year coming up next week (Arang and Faith are both heavily anticipated dramas with Five Fingers up there too), I took a detour into Haeundae Lovers. Whether or not I actually stay for the whole ride is a different story.

Like this:

I just returned from the desolate land of West Virginia, so please forgive me for not blogging for a while. No offense to anyone that lives in that dismal state, but the severe lack of civilization, wifi, and level ground, made me to appreciate my lovely state of New Jersey a lot more.

Anyhoo, I haven’t had much time to catch up on dramas this year but I did find time for 5 remarkable KDramas. I feel like I say this a lot, but these dramas are literally some of the best that I’ve watched ever.

Like this:

Ah, this is my second year watching dramas (to think I only started last year!) and so far I’ve almost completed or completed thirteen dramas and less than halfway on at least two or three dramas. My goal this year is to watch at least 25 dramas this year and provide meaningful discussion about them. Thankfully, Dramabeans have been a huge help in separating the things I ought to watch and the things I should avoid. Hence, I’m not watching Dr. Jin or Operation Proposal because they’re both deemed terrible.

Since there are only so much hours in a day and only so much free time in a while, I obviously won’t and can’t watch all of the dramas that aired. My attention span for Korean dramas are much much shorter than my attention span for American shows since they’re two different things. Hence, I don’t watch shows that have more than (+ or -) 20 episodes. In other words, I’m only here to watch short-term dramas.

So this post here is to give you guys my brief (by my standards, at least) take on each of the dramas I’ve seen or I am currently watching. I have to leave some of my other analysis for my late-year listings and stuff.

I didn’t rate dramas where I’ve seen too few episodes to actually make a serious rating.

Recently, I’ve had a sudden interest in watching Korean cable dramas because I found that they bear some semblance to the cable dramas that air here in the States. While strict laws set by the FCC have limited the stories that broadcast TV shows can make, they don’t apply to cable dramas where nudity is much more common and violence is much more common. While nothing like that has ever appeared on cable dramas in Korea (not that I’m an expert or anything), the quality of the storytelling is markedly better in cable shows. Also, they’re easier to digest because their running time is at least 15 minutes shorter than normal broadcast dramas (trust me, those 15 mins take up a lot of time!). As a result, the writing is usually tighter and there are less filler episodes. This year alone, I’ve watched three cable dramas that rank among my favorite of the year: Queen In Hyun’s Man, Shut Up Flower Boy Band, and I Need Romance 2. Last week, the new TVN drama Reply 1997 or Answer Me 1997 made its debut and I have to say I have very high hopes for this drama.